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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1883. 



(8) Crop is gathered wheu turning yellow. Young 

 children are generally the beet for this work. Let 

 them grow long finger nails and they pluck the fruit 

 faster then they can cut wilh the scissors. 



(9) Wheu the frnit is brought in it ought to be at 

 once sorted. Some may be overripe and some not 

 quite ripe. By lea-ving the overripe, it may discolour 

 the other yofl". Dry that separate. You must wash 

 it all before putting it to dry. In this a little care 

 is necessary. Overripe and ripe pods can be washed 

 in cold water, but the fruit which is a little green 

 jet should be put in a basket and then dipped into 

 boiling water for one minute. Even the ripe will come 

 out a better colour and dry quicker if applied in hot 

 ■water. Straw colour is the proper colour cardamom 

 pods ought to be alter curing. 



The fruit of the cardamom when ripe must be picked 

 and cured at once. In rainy weather it will be necess- 

 ary to have a hot-air room or have a fire-place where 

 you can make a charcoal fire. Have some trays to put 

 the fruit on and cure over the fire. I shall be glad 

 to give any iutorniation on cardamom, croton, etc., at 

 any time, but a postage stamp for reply must be 

 sent or no answer given. — Yours faithfully, 



J. HOLLOWAY. 



Original and Renewed Succirubra Bakk. — Red 

 bark trees, whose original bark (froui Eakwana, Ceylon) 

 gave adeeimal over one per cent, after only five months' 

 renewal yielded a bark with 4 per cent of sulphate of 

 quinine. This is one of the latest (and best) results 

 from analysis we have heard of. 



Enormous Coifee Cb«'ps in Brazil. — We quote from 

 the Rio Neioa : — Several of the new coffee districts of 

 S. Paulo are turning out enormous crops. An ex- 

 ample of this is given in the Oa::eta of Capinas, 

 which states that in the municipality of Jahu a coffee 

 orchard of 40,000 trees belonging to Sr. Floriana Serra, 

 has produced 12,000 arrobas, and that another of 

 130,000 trees, just beginning to bear, belonging to 

 the Elizens boys, has produced 2.5,000 arrohas. This 

 gives an average of 9.6 pounds per tree for the first, 

 and a trifle over 6 pounds for the second. [If clean 

 merchantable coii'ee is meant, then the statement seems 

 incredible. Even at only 300 trees to the acre 9 lb 

 per tree would mean 2,700 lb or over 24 cwt per acre. 

 —Ed.] 



Agri-Hortk'Ultural Shows. — In England it is the 

 general belief that the fruits here are much more 

 abundant and of much better qnality than they are there, 

 but when English peoijle come here, they are sadly 

 disappointed by the reality. With the exception 

 of plantains and pine apples, they find that good 

 fruits are generally scarce and dear, and that oranges 

 are often more expensive and more difficult to be got 

 than they are in England, to which Spain is the 

 nearest country that grows them. Most of the fruit 

 trees in this country have grown by chance from 

 seed thrown away, and few of them have any cult- 

 ivation bestowed on them. So long as this is the case, 

 it is not surprising that the fruit supply should be 

 scarce in quantity and indifferent in quality, but with 

 proper attention to cultivation this might be made one 

 of the best fruit-growing countries in the world. Even 

 paddy cultivation, which is probably the oldest agri- 

 cultural industry in the island, is capable of improve- 

 ment. We do not believe that the Sinhalese villagers 

 of the present day are a bit more conservative in 

 their notions than were the farmers of England and 

 Scotland a generation or two back, and it is mainly 

 through agricultural shows that the British farmers 

 have been persuaded to adopt the modern improve- 

 ments in the cultivation of their crops and the 

 breeding and rearing of their animals. Such exhib- 

 itions must, however, be for any practical purpose 



quite useless so long as they are held only spasmod- 

 ically at long and irregular intervals, and it is only 

 by Government management that the required regular- 

 ity can be secured. — Ceylon "Catholic Messenger," 

 Jan. I2th. 



Davidson's Siroccos. — Messrs. Geo. Steuart & Co. 

 send us a circular giving colored representations of 

 the No. 1 and No. 2 B Sirocco tea-drying machines, 

 now so wellknown among tea planters ; also two circ- 

 ulars dated Nov. 1SS2, one of which details the im- 

 provements lately applied to the No. 1 Sirocco, and 

 the other describes the trays furnished for the Siroccos. 

 With all the improvements recently effected in tea- 

 drying machinery, only ordinary care is needed for 

 first-rate tea to be turned out. 



Cocoa and Lieerian Coffee in the N. W. Pro- 

 vince. — Kurunegala, Jan. 19th. — Cocoa does A 1 when 

 you can get a soil that suits it, and 1' ve no doubt 

 that with care it will pay, but when planted in some 

 places it is no good at all, and apparently is 

 sickly and weak always. Liberian coffee gets the H, V. 

 badly, very badly— no doubt about tliat — and planters 

 here seem to think it can't last more than five years. 

 The Kurunegala district looks very well and the paddy 

 crop seems to be a good one. I don't think that 

 fever is so prevalent as formerly. This may be in con- 

 sequence of our having plenty of rain. 



Cost of Cleaning Coffee in Brazil.— The R'lo 

 News states : — The prices adopted at the new central 

 coffee cleaning factory at Porto do Cochoeiro, Espirito 

 Santo, are as follows : — for completion of drying, 

 cleaning, hulling and grading according to size, 800 

 reis per 15 kilos ; for burnishing 100 reis extra ; and 

 for burnishing and passing through the escolhcdor, 

 completing the selection by hand, 200 reis extra, or 

 1$OUO per 15 kilos. The price for putting in sacks 

 (sacks not furnished by factory) 80 reis per sack. 

 This makes a cost of 4S0S0 per bag for the best 

 prepared coffee, and SS'^^SO for the lowest. 



Aloe Fibre. —On the representation of Mr. H. G. 

 Turner, Collector of Vizagapatam, who is anxious to 

 obtain the machine now foimd best adapted to extract 

 the fibre and called a "Gratteuse," the Agri-Horti- 

 cultural Society, Madras, has placed itself in commun- 

 ication with the Director of the Royal Botanical 

 Gardens, Mauritius, with the view of obtaining detailed 

 information about the cultivation of the aloe fibre, 

 and its preparation. The plant grows in Mauritius 

 for fibre is "Fourcroya gigantea,"the common "green 

 aloe" of Madras gardens, and we only want the 

 machines to introduce this most valuable enterprise 

 into South India, where the aloe grows in profusion, 

 — Madras Times. 



The Cultivation of the Lime tree started in the 

 southern district of Erin a few years ago, having been 

 taken over by gentlemtn of capital, is likely, ere long, 

 to add a new item to our exports, in the conci'etated 

 juice, for which a widening market is opening in 

 Europe and the United States, more we believe for 

 the concocliou of refreshing drinks than as an anti- 

 scorbniic. The tree, which in these countries yields 

 a very great and sure crop, has long attracted our 

 attention and its culliv.atiou was early recommended 

 by us before and since we tilled an editorial chair. 

 It is easy to establish, but some years must pass 

 over bffore the first good crop is gathered ; quicker 

 crops must therefore be grown along with it, to re- 

 coup first outlays, or capital and patience must be 

 forthcoming as wiih that othir and more valmble crop 

 never j'et gone into here as it might be — Nutmegs. 

 " Eight or ten jrears ! Good God. who can w.ait eight 

 or ten years? Where may I be at the end of that 

 time ? Oh no, no," — and they drop the notion. — 

 Trinulad Chronicle. 



